State of the Art in Feedstuff Analysis: A Technique-Oriented Perspective

The need for global feed supply traceability, the high-throughput testing demands of feed industry, and regulatory enforcement drive the need for feed analysis and make extremely complex the issue of the control and evaluation of feed quality, safety, and functional properties, all of which contribute to the very high number of analyses that must be performed. Feed analysis, with respect to animal nutritional requirements, health, reproduction, and production, should be multianalytically approached. In addition to standard methods of chemical analysis, new methods for evaluation of feed composition and functional properties, authenticity, and safety have been developed. Requirements for new analytical methods emphasize performance, sensitivity, reliability, speed, simplified use, low cost for high volume, and routine assays. This review provides an overview of the most used and promising methods for feed analysis. The review is intentionally focused on the following techniques: classical chemical analysis; in situ and in vitro methods; analytical techniques coupled with chemometric tools (NIR and sensors); and cell-based bioassays. This review describes both the potential and limitations of each technique and discusses the challenges that need to be overcome to obtain validated and standardized methods of analysis for a complete and global feed evaluation and characterization.